Mahi Mahi and Tuna are among the tastiest and hardest fighting sport fish. Booking a trip with a sport fishing charter can put you on big fish and give multiple ways to catch them. Here are some common tactics used to catch Mahi Mahi and Tuna on sport fishing charter trips.

Popping with the Birds

Sport fish like Tuna and Mahi Mahi scour the oceans in search of large schools of baitfish. Oceans birds like Seagulls and Pelicans also hunt the same prey. Sport fishing charter boat captains often look for congregated folks of birds to pinpoint what lurks just beneath the surface.

• Topwater: One of the most exciting ways to catch Mahi Mahi and Tuna is using topwater plugs like poppers and spooks. They are particularly effective when fish are actively feeding on schools of baitfish pinned against the surface of the water. To improve your hook up ratio, prepare to make long casts. When reeling in your topwater plugs experiment with different retrieval speeds and patterns. In some cases, fish are keying on frantically escaping prey, while in other cases, the fish are looking for easy, slow moving targets. If a Mahi Mahi or Tuna swipes at your plug but doesn't get hooked, pause your lure and twitch it in place.
• Modifications: Because Mahi Mahi and Tuna thrash violently when you get them on deck, it can be dangerous to remove treble hooks. To prevent a set of hooks from lodging into your skins, many sport fishing charter captains will crimp down the barbs and/or swap out treble hooks for single, in-line, hooks.

Getting Chummy with Fish

Mahi Mahi and Tuna can detect decaying prey from miles away. Sport fishing charter captains can ring the dinner bell by aggressively chumming the water with mixer of dead and live bait.

• Soaking: Sport fishing charters collect and grind up fish scraps to build chum blocks. These blocks of ground up fish are often frozen, which allows the scent to release slowly into the water. To enhance their chumming efforts, sport fishing charters will often coat their chum blocks with fish oil. These oils can intensify the scent and create a slick on the water that's likely to attract just about any fish in the area to the surface.
• Showers: Once sport fish like Mahi Mahi and Tuna are drawn to the boat by the chum block, live bait is often showered into the water to prompt a feeding frenzy.